My 8 year old son is interested in learning to making games but I'm not sure as to what tools/programs I should get for him that won't be overwhelming and will be fun for him to use. I'm doing some searching right now to see what I come up with but will like any advice and suggestions I can get to help make sure I get him on the right path. I appreciate any help you all can give me.

What about GameSalad? I just looked at it and it doesn't require programming but is it something that will be good for young kids or will GameMaker or Scratch be better? Could you provide a link for Scratch? Also is it possible to use GameMaker without programming or is that something he should go ahead and start learning to do as well?

Thanks for the feedback. I also found another one called Kodu which it allows creating games both on PC and on the Xbox 360. I might go with that one to start him off as it looks to be very simple and then switch to something like GameMaker, GameSalad, or Scratch. Again thanks for the suggestions and if you or anyone else have any more please let me know.

Those simple drag and drop game development programs are an excellent way to get into making games. Although they may not teach you how to code, they do teach you how to think like a programmer (logic, program flow, variables, etc.). It will make the transition into making games with actual code much easier. I began video game development with RPG Maker at around the age of ten. There are newer versions of RPG Maker now, so perhaps that's also something you could look into.

I would also say RPG Maker(it is great for old school rpg games, only programming is necessary for more complicated games). Game Maker is great too. But if your son wants to do online games I would say use stencyl, again no programming knowledge required!